Player Watch #14: Luke 'Gav' Urquhart - selected with Pick 57 in the ND - Welcome to North Melbourne

[BRider]

He is giving me Charlie Lazzaro vibes this kid … really hope I am wrong & he makes it though…
If not enter new whipping boy for 2025/26

He is nothing like Lazzaro.

 

[shinboner magic]

We had him rated 22 on our draft board. Tried to do a deal with Essendon that fell through to move up but we luckily still got him!

Now tell us the first 21

 

[jay317]

22 cannot be right. I understand clubs would have had different boards, but he was a consensus late pick by nearly everyone.

 

[King Corey]

22 cannot be right. I understand clubs would have had different boards, but he was a consensus late pick by nearly everyone.

It well could be.

Sydney and I think GWS both took "bolters" I doubt were rated top 30 prospects by others.

 

[BlueandWhiteinmyBlood]

FOS1
MT 12
LU 22
River was in the mid 40s I think.

If your intel is correct and MT is Matt Whitlock, 3 first rounders and a third rounder from only having 2 first round picks, a third round and a fourth round pick, if I am correct.

 

[RossHenshaw]

Nah, Scott will become the new one and I wouldn’t be surprised if Eddie ford holds the cup at the end of the year

nah CCJ def the outright favorite

 

[My Left Foote]

He is giving me Charlie Lazzaro vibes this kid … really hope I am wrong & he makes it though…
If not enter new whipping boy for 2025/26

Serious question, and I know you're a glass is half broken into a million pieces at the best of times, but what are you basing your "Charlie Lazzaro vibes" on? You've seen maybe 3 minutes of his junior highlights and some photographs of him training with North what is it about him that makes you think Charlie Lazzaro?

 

[koshari]

nah CCJ def the outright favourite

mine by the length of the flemington straight,

 

[chubbspeterson]

It well could be.

Sydney and I think GWS both took "bolters" I doubt were rated top 30 prospects by others.

Exactly Bowman I honestly hadn't even heard of. Don't think he was even in the national champs.
When you stack Luke up with others around that mark it's more than fair.
I would've had him more 30-35 range in my order, but it's not egregious, given the scope for improvement in him.
We also rate competitors, resilient and driven players more highly, which is Urqy.

 

[chubbspeterson]

FOS1
MT 12
LU 22
River was in the mid 40s I think.

We've found RedFoo recruiter guys!!!

 

[chubbspeterson]

Serious question, and I know you're a glass is half broken into a million pieces at the best of times, but what are you basing your "Charlie Lazzaro vibes" on? You've seen maybe 3 minutes of his junior highlights and some photographs of him training with North what is it about him that makes you thick Charlie Lazzaro?

Yep no disrespect to Charlie, but Luke is more competitive/aggressive in the contest and pretty sure his 20m sprint is quicker than Laz. I think we'll be very happy with Luke.

 

[Makeshift Park]

FOS1
MT 12
LU 22
River was in the mid 40s I think.

Hey RedFoo, what number was Tauru?

 

[Kangaroos4eva]

 

[The Talent Scout]

If he had Luke at 22, its rinse repeat. “Kicking a footy isnt important” .. that richmond model wont do you that well. They were gifted a flag, a covid flag and honestly probably earned one.. debatable..

The Chaos ball doesn’t fit the Clarkson plan. And this isnt on the kid, he doesn’t get to choose, this is on us, why the hell do we do this to ourselves? Everyone knows elite kicking and contested ball wins flags. Unbelievable.

I hope ge becomes a superstar ball winner but **** me im gonna have to close my eyes when he kicks it

C'mon DuckYeah your better than that, I know what your saying and my favourite skill in football is kicking but he's not that bad, what gets lost on here sometimes is all the plays you don't see where his kicking is pretty good, do you notice no one talks about some of his good plays because all they are interested in or focusing on is his kicking and nothing else. On my draft board I had Luke at pick #28 five days before the national draft and we ended up getting him at pick 57!

Trust me when I say he's going to be quite the player, ask yourself this simple question, why do you think Will called his name out of 400/500 players that still hadn't been picked up and probably 50-75% of them can kick better than Luke? I can give you that answer in a heartbeat, but its a two way answer, firstly because of "POTENTIAL" & secondly just maybe one of the best young recruiters out there {in my opinion} doesn't think Luke's kicking is that bad that people have to have a meltdown.

Watching Luke at the nationals he was brilliant, yes I saw a few errant kicks but again recruiters mainly focus on what they can do and how well they can do it. That's not to say they don't recognise little problems that they have, most of that can be fixed by coaches, its the positives that are number 1 and his positives scream out to me in a big way, a very big way.

I loved Joe Berry, I loved Xavier Lindsay, those two right there were two of the best kicks in the national draft but we have a few problems there don't we cause not only are they different players and play different positions but they went a lot earlier & no one was trading in so whether we had those two players or someone else is now irrelevant, on potential Luke's ceiling is, think of a skyscraper, ok probably not that tall but you get the idea.

 

[The Talent Scout]

22 cannot be right. I understand clubs would have had different boards, but he was a consensus late pick by nearly everyone.

jay317 you just answered your own statement, yes clubs boards on talent would have been very different but the media and other sites on draft players and where they might go {what pick} would differ a lot on where recruiters actually had players on their whiteboard.

 

[The Talent Scout]

We've found RedFoo recruiter guys!!!

Thank god I've lost the mantle!

 

[RossHenshaw]

We had him rated 22 on our draft board. Tried to do a deal with Essendon that fell through to move up but we luckily still got him!

Are these the same pea brains that had Jacob Edwards in the top 20?

 

[DuckYeah]

Will

You are giving will the benefit of the doubt here. He worked at the tiges yeh? Recruitment? Has he done a good job over there? What was his exact role?

Dimma wanted forward press and I guess “chaos ball” was thrown out. The plan was more “kick it in Dustys area.

Chaos ball isn’t the game we are implementing amongst our young group. Its fast clean footy. The reason our game doesn’t hold up is because our skill level is deplorable. Bringing in more the same and attempting to execute high skill games is not going to work and is a sign of madness.

I am not privileged to the information as to why we are recruiting the way we are. On face value, on what I am able to witness with my own eyes. It makes NO sense.

A premiership teams midfielders whether they are defensive or not must bring an elite skill, either Hands, Feet or Marking to work defence into offence.

Its not a knock on the kid, people might think im having a crack at him. Im not, I want him to be the best Luke on the list. He has one of them covered right now.

 

[Passmore]

Are these the same pea brains that had Jacob Edwards in the top 20?

Don't think the current head of recruitment was there in 2020, so probably not.

Sent from my SM-A908B using Tapatalk

 

[Shazeezal]

You are giving will the benefit of the doubt here. He worked at the tiges yeh? Recruitment? Has he done a good job over there? What was his exact role?

Dimma wanted forward press and I guess “chaos ball” was thrown out. The plan was more “kick it in Dustys area.

Chaos ball isn’t the game we are implementing amongst our young group. Its fast clean footy. The reason our game doesn’t hold up is because our skill level is deplorable. Bringing in more the same and attempting to execute high skill games is not going to work and is a sign of madness.

I am not privileged to the information as to why we are recruiting the way we are. On face value, on what I am able to witness with my own eyes. It makes NO sense.

A premiership teams midfielders whether they are defensive or not must bring an elite skill, either Hands, Feet or Marking to work defence into offence.

Its not a knock on the kid, people might think im having a crack at him. Im not, I want him to be the best Luke on the list. He has one of them covered right now.

Not buying the criticism.
The club has brought in Powell, JHF, Sheezel, McKercher, Duursma and FOS over the last 5 years - considerable draft capital on very highly skilled players. Suggests to me that our recruiters do value it.

And the sky isn't falling because of pick 57 FFS.
The kid is potentially a defensive beast who might balance out our midfield in 2-3 years time. About the time a few other non-stellar players are going or gone. Luke could be our Libba or Brad Sewell. If not, nothing ventured nothing gained.

Personally, I think the players that kill you are the poor-kicking outside players who are supposed to be delivering it forward under less pressure ... and we have a few too many of those. One by one, I think they will be replaced ... just don't expect it to be by a pick in the 50's.

 

[DuckYeah]

Powell, JHF, Sheezel, McKercher, Duursma and FOS

So? Sheezel and Kerch are the only two with the level of skills necessary. Powell has not been up to scratch to be honest, he has a long way to go and who knows if Duursma makes it. Time will tell, ive had enough of winning the ball only to turn it over. You must think thats the right approach. It aint.

Biggest flaws in our game.

• Defensive pressure in our FWD line to Mid Field. Ball transitions from our FWD line far too easily which segway into the second biggest flaws.
• poor skills by foot and hands entering 50 and general play. (Daniel addresses this somewhat)
• young bodies being bullied in the midfield (they have attempted to address that and I think Parker addresses this somewhat)

 

[Sillygit]

what is it about him that makes you thick Charlie Lazzaro?

Cheeseburgers, mostly

 

[LB2Snake]

Whole new world when we are bagging a kid who hasn’t even played a reserves game for us. Bloody hell.

 

[Harveysuth]

Sometimes I feel I made a mistake joining this forum.

 

[Shermanator]

Serious question, and I know you're a glass is half broken into a million pieces at the best of times, but what are you basing your "Charlie Lazzaro vibes" on? You've seen maybe 3 minutes of his junior highlights and some photographs of him training with North what is it about him that makes you think Charlie Lazzaro?